More than one in three of us dream about a successful career in music as we sit at our desks - with performing on stage alongside Queen the most popular fantasy.

The late Freddie Mercury was a bigger draw than The Arctic Monkeys, Oasis and The Rolling Stones combined in the survey of 2,000 people.

Nearly half said they wanted to work in music in order to follow their passion above making money or achieving fame.

The jobs people dream about include performing on stage, being a roadie, writing hit songs or talent-spotting the next big pop star.

The research, commissioned by music education group BIMM, found that 28% of women have fleeting thoughts of having a musical career.

Only 21% said they did not see music as a proper job, while 13% lacked access to relevant careers advice and 7% said they had been put off by a careers adviser.

And 23% of men said they would pursue a job in the music industry now if they had the opportunity to start their career again.

Vaseema Hamilton, BIMM principal, said: “At BIMM, we want to encourage people to believe in themselves and to believe that their creative and vocational dreams of working in music don’t need to remain unfulfilled.”